Manufacture of friction-matches



NITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. HENRY MITCHELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE OF FRICTION-MATCHES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 284,651, dated September 11, 1883.

I Application filed February 20, 1883. (No specimens.)

I of the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Friction-Matches, whereof the following is a specification.

It is well known that in the manufacture of matches a considerable time must elapse after the dipping on of the heads before the matches can be finished or removed from the machine, as otherwise the gluey material of which the heads are composed will cause them to adhere together. To permit the drying or hardening of the heads in continuously-operating machines, belts of great length are required, upon which the dipped matches travel for a long distance in order to harden. If the drying or hardening is accelerated by the use of warm air or otherwise, the product is apt to be inferior, as too rapid drying may cause the heads to detonate or crack when ignited.

The object of my present invention is to subject the freshly-dipped heads to a treatment or process which prevents their adhesion to one another, and thus'permits the immediate cutting of the sticks and their remov al from the machine and the subsequent slow drying of the igniting material under circumstances which will yield the best results for the product. In addition to these .features of improvement and economy in the process of manufacture, I have found that the matches thus produced ignite with a very soft flame, owing to the modifications effected in the structure of the head.

To these ends my invention consists in covering the freshly-dipped heads with a dry powder, which adheres to them in just sufficient quantity to prevent their sticking together, but not to affect the readiness of their ignition when dry. I

No special form of apparatus is essential to this treatment, and although I havedevised machinery adapted thereto, which will form the subject of another application for Letters Patent, I do not desire to limit the scope of the present invention to the use of such apparatus, since the operation may be conducted.

' of the match will not be injured.

by ordinary hand sifting or sprinkling devices.

I have found pumicestone, chalk, or clay, thoroughly dry and reduced to an impalpable powder, to be well adapted to produce the de sired result, though various other powders might be substituted therefor with the same effect. Gritty materials sufficiently sharp to produce a surface highly frictional, and substances completely soluble in the composition which forms the head, must be avoided,- as the former may facilitate the accidental ignition of the matches when dry, and the latter may form a cake or coating upon the head which would render it difficult to ignite by friction.

If desired, dry coloring-matters-such as, for instance, crocus-powdermay be added to the pumice-stone, &c., so that the appearance The pow dered material shouldbe injected or sifted upon the freshly-dipped heads as soon as they have set sufficiently to have a definite form. The sticks may then be immediately cut and the matches removedand placed away to dry, or otherwise handled without danger of their heads adhering together. The injection of the powder upon the still fluid composition appears to have the effect of breaking up the surface of the head, probably through capillary attraction of the particles, and owing to the po-- rosity or other characteristics of the surface thus produced the matches are found to be readily ignitible, but peculiarly free from tendency to detonate or crack.

I claim herein as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent The hereinbeforedescribed improvement in the process of manufacturing matches, which consists in injecting upon the freshly-dipped heads a dry powder, free from sharp grit and not soluble in the composition of the head, capable of adhering thereto and forming a nonadhesive exterior surface, substantially in the manner and for the purposes specified.

J WALTER DOUGLASS, WM. W. FARR,J1. 

